page_title: City Hall, London
section_title: Design
hierarchical_section_title: City Hall, London / Design
caption_attribution_description: English: The spiral staircase in City Hall, London.
context_page_description: City Hall is the headquarters of the Greater London Authority, which comprises the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. It is located in Southwark, on the south bank of the River Thames near Tower Bridge. It was designed by Norman Foster and opened in July 2002, two years after the Greater London Authority was created. In June 2020, the Greater London Authority started a consultation on proposals to vacate City Hall and move to The Crystal building at the end of 2021.
context_section_description: The building has an unusual, bulbous shape, purportedly intended to reduce its surface area and thus improve energy efficiency, although the excess energy consumption caused by the exclusive use of glass (in a double facade) overwhelms the benefit of shape.  Despite claiming the building "demonstrates the potential for a sustainable, virtually non-polluting public building", energy use measurements have shown this building to be fairly inefficient in terms of energy use (375 kWh/m²/yr), with a 2012 Display Energy Performance Certificate rating of "E". It has been compared variously to a helmet (either Darth Vader's or simply a motorcyclist's), a misshapen egg, and a woodlouse. Former mayor Ken Livingstone referred to it as a "glass testicle", while his successor, Boris Johnson, made the same comparison using a different word, "The Glass Gonad" and more politely as "The Onion".
  A 500-metre (1,640 ft) helical walkway ascends the full ten stories. At the top is an exhibition and meeting space called "London's Living Room", with an open viewing deck which is occasionally open to the public. The walkway provides views of the interior of the building, and is intended to symbolise transparency; a similar device was used by Foster in his design for the rebuilt Reichstag (parliament), when Germany's capital was moved back to Berlin. In 2006 it was announced that photovoltaic cells would be fitted to the building by the London Climate Change Agency.
  The council chamber is located at the bottom of the helical stairway.  The seats and desks for Assembly Members are arranged in a circular form.
caption: The interior helical staircase of London City Hall
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